Connector tool permission "Needs approval" is ignored in Projects (beta) cloud thread sessions
What happened
Connector tool permission "Needs approval" is ignored in Projects (beta) cloud thread sessions
What happened:
In a Claude Projects (beta) project, thread sessions run Claude Code in the cloud. My personal claude.ai Gmail connector has the send tools (send_message, reply, forward) set to "Needs approval" in Settings > Connectors. In thread sessions these tools still executed immediately, with no approval prompt shown to me. An email was actually sent.
Steps to reproduce:
- Connect the Gmail connector on claude.ai and set send_message to "Needs approval".
- Open a project (Projects beta) and start a new thread session.
- Ask the thread to send a test email with send_message.
- The email is sent right away. No approval prompt appears in the thread.
Observed on 2026-10-04 at 14:17 and 14:29 UTC, both in fresh thread sessions started after reconnecting the connector.
What works correctly:
- Setting the tool to "Never" removes it from the thread session as expected.
- A permissions.ask rule for mcp__Gmail__send_message in the repository's .claude/settings.json does trigger an approval prompt in the thread (verified at 14:53 and 14:55 UTC).
Expected:
"Needs approval" on a connector tool should show an approval prompt in the thread before the tool runs, the same way a permissions.ask rule does.
Impact:
Users rely on "Needs approval" as a safety control for actions with external effects, like sending email. Today it silently does nothing in cloud thread sessions, so emails can be sent without the user's review.
Environment
- Filed from: Report a problem in Claude Code
- Project ID:
chan_012nqabEtfToPJ3MttPJxoCP